Hello, my name is Emily and I'm studying an MA in Arts Management at University College Falmouth.
My practice and study is focusing on Rural Arts. I will be spending the year looking into provision provided for artists in Somerset to create work. Along with taking high quality contemporary art into rural spaces and breaking down access barriers to those living in rural isolation.
This blog page will map my process, thoughts and findings throughout the year.

About Me

My blogs are my diaries, they help me capture and remember important times and adventures in my life. From challenges I've set myself to lands I've explored. Each blog represents a different part of my story.

Saturday, 13 March 2010

This week I have been learning how to create my own website for my project / business. This will allow me to promote the exhibition and opportunities to artists. I'm also hoping I can incoporporate this blog and have a forum for artists to get involved in debates and discussions.

So in the last few month's I've been really busy putting all of the work I'd been doing since September into a portfolio, essay and proposal, which concluded the first part of my MA in Arts Management. It was a really useful time for me to collect everything that I had been doing and to quantify where I'm trying to get to.

Since the hand-ins, i must admit, I've been taking it easy. Although, I have put in a funding application to Somerset Vounty Council for £600 and the Arts Council South West have received a draft application, which I have had feedback on. All of which is looking very promising. I have set myself deadlines and I'm really excited about getting this project off the ground.

The project will consist of -
1. A one day residency for visual artists in Somerset to work in collaboration to create a temporary piece of art.
2. A two week exhibition of short art films, which will be placed into a film library. There will be ten films all together and as the audience enters into the space they can decide what film(s) from the library they would like to watch whilst visiting the exhibition.
3. A evening of progress, for artists, arts professionals and communities members to really investigate what is needed and ways forward for the visual arts in Somerset.
4. A month long residency for three artists to create new work in collaboration with the public. The artwork will be placed into a weekend long exhibition.

These events will all take place in Somerset within the months of June, July and August 2010. The aims and objectives of the project is to create a model of practice that will support and increase the level of visual arts being produced and exhibited within the county of Somerset.

Still to be confirmed is the dreaded the space. The space for the day residency (Sharing Lab), is confirmed, but the other elements of the project are not. The choses are (in order of preference) -
1. A contemporary portakabin. This all depeneds on whether the business gets funding this year.
2. The exhibition will tour the county and be a series of outside projections. Obvioulsy this chose id just for the exhibition.
3. A marquee

My dissertation will use the evaluation of the project to investigate the models of practice to support the visual arts in rural settings - comparing Somerset to other rural settings within the UK and Europe.

So, best get started.

If you are interested in any part of the project or my ongoing academic research please don't hesitate to contact me on Context.Arts@googlemail.com

Saturday, 9 January 2010

Monday, 4 January 2010

The project is coming together well - I've put together a rough budget, ideas about the spaces are starting to work and I've got confirmation from a curator that I've asked to work on the exhibition with me. Over the next few weeks my ideas and thought processes so far will be culminated in the creation of my MA portfolio, my proposals and essays for part 1 of my MA. One thing I'm hoping to have done by mid January is a completion of interviews and research into rural arts, Somerset arts and my project. I'm also planning on using the next month to put together my funding applications for the project so that once my MA part 1 is complete I can start working on setting my project up and managing it.

As I've been putting all of my gathered information together and continuing conversations with fellow professionals in the area of rural arts I started to think about the bigger picture and the business that I'm hoping to set up through my MA. By doing this MA not only have I know got a basic understanding of how to set up a company but I also have a better understanding about the aims for the organisation.

There is a state of unknown future of the arts in Somerset at the moment as the Arts Council South West have commissioned work to look into how the arts are delivered and how they might be brought together to be more cohesive. As part of my research for my project and business I plan on getting to know this commission better so that I am successful.

I feel that my project is now at a stage where I have collected so many opinions, ideas and inspirations that I can now start putting everything together in order to make it work. The first four months of my MA have been really helpful for me and my practice.

Over the Christmas break I have been considering certain practicalities of my project. The main one being how to go about getting a space to use and what kind of space should I be looking to use. The space needs to be secure, accessible, have a supply of heating and electricity, be able to be moved from site to site, can be used to exhibit art in and is not a village hall, caravan, barn or shed. The things that I have been looking into include flat pack spaces that are mainly used as alternative conservatories, detached garages (very shed like), containers and the latest idea that a certain architect gave me, was portacabins.

I've also been thinking about ways in which future projects for the spaces could look at how artists work in communities of Somerset and in collaboration to decorate the outside of the spaces into pieces of public art.